Cowgirl Crazy (#2, Cowboy Way) by Becky McGraw Read Free Book Online

out here and
play nurse all you want. I’m tired,” Heather said with a huffed
breath. “I’ll be inside. Holler if you need me, and I’ll call the
police.”
    “ Don’t call them,” Twyla shouted
to her as she walked up the stairs.
    “ Figures,” Heather grumbled
shaking her head as she topped the stairs.
    “ Pepper spray. Need water,” Ryan
groaned, as he stood up. He stepped into the light and Twyla
gasped. His eye was black, and almost swollen shut. His nose was
bruised and swollen too. Teddy must’ve really hit him hard. “You
look like you’ve been mule-kicked! We’re going to the emergen—”
Twyla stopped to lean in closer to inspect the white string hanging
from his nostril. “What the hell is that hanging from your
nose?”
    “ Tampon,” he said in a stopped up,
nasally voice. “Hurts like hell too. Don’t know how y’all stand
it.”
    “ I guess so,” she said with
laughter bubbling in her chest. “You left the applicator in there,
nimnut!”
    His head swung to hers, and he pried open the
slits that covered his fire-red eyes. “Applicator?”
    “ Yeah, the cardboard comes out
then the cotton stops the bleeding,” she explained, and a chuckle
followed. “I learned that the hard way the first time I used them
too.” More chuckles bubbled up to her throat, and escaped. His
stunned expression melded the chuckles into full-fledged laughter.
Twyla held her stomach and staggered back to sit on the first step
and let it loose. It felt damned good. She laughed so hard she
thought she might crack a rib if she wasn’t careful. Tears streamed
down her face, as she gulped for breath.
    Ryan stomped over to glare down at her, as
much as he could glare from his slitted red-rimmed eyes. “Glad to
be the comic relief, but my fucking eyes are on fire, and my nuts
are up in my throat. Think you could help a poor, dumb bastard out
when you’re done?”
    Twyla sucked in a breath and wiped her eyes
with the hem of her tank top. She pushed up to her feet and took
his arm to help him as he stepped on the first stair tread. “Sorry,
it’s not every day a guy sticks a tampon up his nose. Why didn’t
you just use Kleenex?”
    “ Didn’t have any,” he replied
angrily.
    Laughter tried to consume her again. “But you
had a tampon?”
    “ You left one in the glove box of
the truck.” He grabbed the stair rail to steady himself, and Twyla
carefully led him up to the landing.
    At the apartment door, she knocked, because it
was shut and locked. After a second of lock flipping, the door
swung open, and Heather stood there in only her pushup bra and
skimpy panties. Ryan groaned and shut his eyes. Heather shook her
head, threw up her hands and walked away. She went inside her
bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.
    Twyla helped Ryan inside and shut the door
behind her, then flipped the deadbolt and door locks. If she
didn’t, she knew Heather would ream her out in the morning. Ryan
staggered toward the couch, but Twyla slid her arm through his and
walked him to the tiny bathroom down the hall. Sitting him on the
toilet, she got a washrag and wet it in the sink.
    When she turned toward him, his head was
leaned back on his shoulders and his eyes were closed. She took a
long look at his bruised nose and swollen eye. He really should go
to the emergency room and get checked out. He had to be in
excruciating pain. Her heart tried to bleed for him, but she
patched it up mentally. He deserved what he got, she reminded
herself.
    “ You look like ten miles of bad
road, cowboy,” she said laying the rag on his forehead.
    He grunted. “Feel like twenty.”
    She moved to stand in front of him and one
eye, the one not black, popped open. The bright blue iris stood in
sharp contrast to the red roadmap that was the white. His hands
gripped the toilet, as she bathed his forehead and beard-roughened
cheeks, then his chin. “I’m sorry you got hurt, but you should’ve
known better than to come here.”
    “ I’m a